the ropes of these two sets might hold her together: especially with the help of a rope going quite round about the gunwale on the outside, as our longboats have. And such is the care taken to strengthen the boats; from which girding them with ropes, which our seamen call fraping, they have the name of frape-boats. Two men suffice to haul her in and out, and take in the salt from shore (which is brought in bags) and put it out again. As soon as the boat is brought nigh enough to the shore he who stands by the bulkhead takes instantly a turn with the hawser about the bulkhead stanchion; and that stops her fast before the sea can turn her aside: and when the two men have got in their lading they haul off to sea till they come a little without the swell; where they remove the salt into another boat that carries it on board the ship. Without such a frape-boat here is but bad landing at any time: for though it is commonly very smooth in the road, yet there falls a great sea on the shore, so that every ship that comes here should have such a boat, and bring or make or borrow one of the other ships that happen to be here; for the inhabitants have none. I have been thus particular in the description of these frape-boats because of the use they may be of in any places where a great sea falls in upon the shore: as it does especially in many open roads in the East and West Indies; where they might therefore be very serviceable; but I never saw any of them there.

ITS VEGETABLES, SILK-COTTON, ETC. ITS SOIL, AND TOWNS; ITS GUINEA-HENS AND OTHER FOWLS, BEASTS, AND FISH. OF THE SEA TURTLES, ETC. LAYING IN THE WET SEASON. OF THE NATIVES, THEIR TRADE AND LIVELIHOOD.

The island Mayo is generally barren, being dry, as I said; and the best of it is but a very indifferent soil. The sandy bank that pens in the salt pond has a sort of silk-cotton growing upon it, and a plant that runs along upon the ground, branching out like a vine, but with thick broad leaves. The silk-cotton grows on tender shrubs, 3 or 4 foot high, in cods as big as an apple, but of a long shape; which when ripe open at one end, parting leisurely into 4 quarters; and at the first opening the cotton breaks forth. It may be of use for stuffing of pillows, or the like, but else is of no value, any more than that of the great cotton-tree. I took of these cods before that were quite ripe, and laid them in my chest; and in 2 or 3 days they would open and throw out the cotton. Others I have bound fast with strings, so that the cod could not open; and in a few days after, as soon as I slackened the string never so little, the cod would burst and the cotton fly out forcibly at a very little hole, just as the pulp out of a roasting apple, till all has been out of the cod. I met with this sort of cotton afterwards at Timor (where it was ripe in November) and nowhere else in all my travels; but I found two other sorts of silk-cotton at Brazil, which I shall there describe. The right cotton-shrub grows here also, but not on the sandbank. I saw some bushes of it near the shore; but the most of it is planted in the middle of the isle, where the inhabitants live, cotton-cloth being their chief manufacture; but neither is there any great store of this cotton. There also are some trees within the island, but none to be seen near the seaside; nothing but a few bushes scattering up and down against the sides of the adjacent hills; for as I said before the land is pretty high from the sea. The soil is for the most part either a sort of sand, or loose crumbling stone, without any fresh-water ponds or streams to moisten it, but only showers in the wet season which run off as fast as they fall, except a small spring in the middle of the isle, from which proceeds a little stream of water that runs through a valley between the hills. There the inhabitants live in three small towns, having a church and padre in each town: and these towns, as I was informed, are 6 or 7 miles from the road. Pinose is said to be the chief town, and to have 2 churches: St. John's the next, and the third Lagoa. The houses are very mean: small, low things. They build with figtree, here being, as I was told, no other trees fit to build with. The rafters are a sort of wild cane. The fruits of this isle are chiefly figs and watermelons. They have also callavances (a sort of pulse like French beans) and pumpkins for ordinary food. The fowls are flamingos, great curlews, and guinea-hens, which the natives of those islands call galena pintata, or the painted hen; but in Jamaica, where I have seen also those birds in the dry savannahs and woods (for they love to run about in such places) they are called guinea-hens. They seem to be much of the nature of partridges. They are bigger than our hens, have long legs, and will run apace. They can fly too but not far, having large heavy bodies and but short wings and short tails: as I have generally observed that birds have seldom long tails unless such as fly much; in which their tails are usually serviceable to their turning about as a rudder to a ship or boat. These birds have thick and strong yet sharp bills, pretty long claws, and short tails. They feed on the ground, either on worms, which they find by tearing open the earth; or on grasshoppers, which are plentiful here. The feathers of these birds are speckled with dark and light grey; the spots so regular and uniform that they look more beautiful than many birds that are decked with gayer feathers. Their necks are small and long; their heads also but little. The cocks have a small rising on their crowns, like a sort of a comb. It is of the colour of a dry walnut shell, and very hard. They have a small red gill on each side of their heads, like ears, strutting out downwards; but the hens have none. They are so strong that one cannot hold them; and very hardy. They are very good meat, tender, and sweet; and in some the flesh is extraordinary white; though some others have black flesh: but both sorts are very good. The natives take them with dogs, running them down whenever they please; for here are abundance of them. You shall see 2 or 300 in a company. I had several brought aboard alive, where they throve very well; some of them 16 or 18 months; when they began to pine. When they are taken young they will become tame like our hens. The flamingos I have already described at large. They have also many other sort of fowls, namely pigeons and turtledoves; miniotas, a sort of land-fowls as big as crows, of a grey colour, and good food; crusias, another sort of grey-coloured fowl almost as big as a crow, which are only seen in the night (probably a sort of owls) and are said to be good for consumptive people but eaten by none else. Rabeks, a sort of large grey eatable fowls with long necks and legs, not unlike herons; and many kinds of small birds.

Of land animals here are goats, as I said formerly, and asses good store. When I was here before they were said to have had a great many bulls and cows: but the pirates who have since miserably infested all these islands have much lessened the number of those; not having spared the inhabitants themselves: for at my being there this time the governor of Mayo was but newly returned from being a prisoner among them, they having taken him away, and carried him about with them for a year or two.

The sea is plentifully stocked with fish of divers sorts, namely dolphins, bonetas, mullet, snapper, silver-fish, garfish, etc. And here is a good bay to haul a seine or net in. I hauled mine several times, and to good purpose; dragging ashore at one time 6 dozen of great fish, most of them large mullet of a foot and a half or two foot long. Here are also porpoises, and a small sort of whales that commonly visit this road every day. I have already said that the months of May, June, July and August (that is, the wet season) are the time when the green-turtle come hither and go ashore to lay their eggs. I look upon it as a thing worth taking notice of that the turtle should always, both in north and south latitude, lay their eggs in the wet months. It might be thought, considering what great